What do you want to do before you die? OU students talk 'The Buried Life'

Left to right: Jonnie Penn, Dave Lingwood, President Obama, Duncan Penn and Ben Nemtin
"The Buried Life" spent months trying to cross off the bucket list item "Play basketball with the President." The goal was to show that anything is possible.

What do you want to do before you die?

That was the question posed Thursday night to a sold-out crowd at Oakland University by the four men behind MTV's "The Buried Life."

"The Buried Life" is best known as a reality documentary series on MTV that documents four regular guys that are on a mission to complete a list of '100 Things to Do Before You Die.' For every list item they complete, they help someone else cross off an item from their bucket list.

For Oakland University students and community members, those bucket list items included meeting birth parents, swimming in the Great Barrier Reef, becoming the first female president, writing a novel and to crowd-surf -- an item one lucky fan was able to cross off their bucket list by the end of the evening.

Advertisement

Brothers Duncan and Jonnie Penn, along with their friends Ben Nemtin and Dave Lingwood began the mission before their reality show after feeling like they were living unfulfilling lives in their college years.

"I want to feel like at the end of my life that I did the absolute best I could," Jonnie said.

Jonnie, along with his brother and friends, knew they were going to make a change.

The name "The Buried Life" comes from a poem by Matthew Arnold that Jonnie had to read in class -- which has four lines that changed his life forever.

"But often in the world's most crowded streets, but often in the din of strife, there rises an unspeakable desire, after the knowledge of our buried life," the poem reads.

"This poem was written over 150 years ago in a world almost entirely different than the one we live in today -- by a guy in his 50s," Jonnie said. "And what he is talking about is the same feeling I had at 19, which is, you go through life and sometimes things are great, but sometimes things suck ... and that idea of the buried life, of feeling buried by all these things we're exposed to in our daily life, all these kind of daily chores we have to do to life kind of resonated for us."

The Buried Life's bucket list includes items like be on the front page of the newspaper, help deliver a baby, kiss the Stanley Cup, ride a bull and play basketball with Barack Obama.

Make a television show is also on the list, but they turned down an offer they got for a show early on -- with feelings that the timing was wrong.

When MTV approached them later in time, they made it a part of their agreement that MTV would not intervene in helping get the tasks accomplished. MTV made all four men executive producers of their own show beginning in the pilot episode.

The pilot fulfilled Lingwood's lifelong dream of crashing a party at the Playboy Mansion.

"Jonnie and I dressed up as Oompa Loompas and we got in the bottom of this decorated wooden cake and Duncan delivered it to the back door of Playboy," Lingwood said.

They successfully delivered the phony cake to the mansion, where Jonnie and Lingwood spent six hours hiding with their cameras ready to film. When they came out of the cake, security thought they were part of the entertainment and they spent three hours at the party -- crossing the 6th item off of their bucket list.

The group has accomplished many of their list items, while helping others cross off bucket list items of their own like reconnecting an adopted man with his birth father, helping underprivileged students get a new computer in their classroom and helping a girl get over her fear of rollercoasters.

The idea the group wants to get out is that anything is possible, even playing basketball with the president. After several months of failure, including an episode of the failed task, the group played basketball at the White House with Obama.

The Buried Life have come up with three steps for how others can accomplish their goals. The first step is write everything down.

The second is going after it -- with persistence and your network.

"We've learned time and time again that 'no' doesn't mean 'no' ... it means not now, I'm not ready, change it, bring it back, evolve it someway," Jonnie said.

The final thing is whatever you can do to help others, do it. Diving into the lives of others will humble you.

"You guys are so lucky to be where you are right now, you are so lucky. You can do anything you want, and I encourage you to take those steps and to take those risks," Jonnie told the crowd.